Gallatin County, Kentucky, 1935
Red Lines are roads,  black lines are railroads

Gallatin County was the 30th county formed in Kentucky.  The law enacting Gallatin County was passed on December 14, 1798 the county was formed on May 13, 1799 from parts of Franklin and Shelby Counties. Its boundaries are unchanged since February 5, 1872. It has an area of 98.8 square miles, making it the 120th largest of Kentucky's 120 counties.

"The Louisville Journal states that on Friday night, December 27, Capt.. Fry, of Company B, Twentieth Regiment, started out from Warsaw, Ky., with a file of men for Eagle Creek, about 13 miles from the village, having been ordered to arrest Capt. Washington R. Sanders, and break up a company of Secessionists, who rendezvoused at his house.  When they reached the house of Mr. Sanders he was not to be found.  Upon searching the premises a 6-pound cannon was found buried, together with six kegs of gunpowder, a quantity of rifles, bowie-knives, pistols, swords and percussion caps."  NY Times,  January 4, 1862

"T. U. R. Key [!], one of the rampant rebels arrested at Warsaw, Ky., a few days ago managed to escape from confinement in Cincinnati on Sunday.  Four soldiers chased him, and after over-taking him were obliged to give him a severe blow with a musket before he would come to terms and return to his quarters."  NY Times, January 9, 1862

The steamer Gen. Buell was detained at Ghent and Warsaw by the Confederate home guard.  In 1866. Read the story here.

"Four runaway slaves were arrested in Aurora on the subject, to await the first down river boat.  They belonged to persons living a little back of Warsaw, and all of them signified their wish to return to their masters.  They said they had enough of running, and should henceforth be content with their fate."  Independent Press, Lawrenceburg, May 18, 1853

The Kentucky Department of Agriculture's assessment of agriculture in Gallatin County, in 1898-1899 can be found here. (pdf)

"Last Saturday night four men who were over the river in Indiana at a saloon known as the "Lost Boy" narrowly escaped drowning when the skiff in which they were crossing sprang a leak and sank with them.  Fortunately, the river was low and they were able to walk ashore." from The Warsaw Advocate, 11-26-1887.

"Gallatin county has at last contracted a real sensible case of pike fever.  One route is proposed from Glencoe to the county seat; while another is talked of that will give Glencoe access to river transportations, Sugar Creek being the terminus.  Either of these routes  would develop a good country, and would enhance the value of real estate.  The Glencoe mill property that was destroyed two years since has not been rebuilt, although the water power and the location is unsurpassed by any other on the banks of the Eagle."  Covington's Daily Commonwealth, September 3, 1879

The Warsaw town trustees meet, pass first ordinances, here.

Troops sent to Warsaw to restore peace in 1861, here.

Gallatin County cemetery records are here.

The Gallatin County GenWeb site is here.

 In 1871, the New York Democrat reports 32 wealthy widows live in Warsaw.  Read it here.

How they hunted ducks in Gallatin County when they didn't have a gun.  Here.

An early "western" traveler  goes past Warsaw: John Woods, 1820

Prominent Citizens of Gallatin County in 1847, here.

A status report from the Superintendent of Schools in Gallatin County from 1900 is here.

Florence, Indiana was originally named New York, Indiana.

The Gridley Lynching, 1871, here.

Daniel Boone artifact found in Gallatin Co?  Here.

Warsaw's Richard Yates became Governor of Illinois, and a close advisor of Abraham Lincoln.  Read about him, here.

Pupils per school district in Gallatin County in 1906, here.

The 1871 Warsaw Stage Coach Schedule is here.

A Hog Problem in 1871. Read about it here.

Gallatin County News Editor comes clean in 1934, here.

A few words on Warsaw founder Robert Johnson, here.

Political Dirty Tricks in 1898 are here.

William H. Hill makes good in Cincinnati, here.

D. B. Wallace wrote a brief History of Gallatin Co in 1917.  It's here.  (pdf)

"Whiskey is said to be making war in Warsaw and never misses fire; kills in from fourteen days to three months, and the Record makes war upon whiskey, but says 'If you drink, go to Pulliam, who keeps pure copper whiskey.' That is as if the preacher should say 'If you will go to the devil, go to the one who keeps the best brimstone.'"  Carrollton Democrat, January 25, 1873

The WPA Writers Project in the 1930's interviewed a number of ex-slaves.  Two were from Gallatin County.  Lula Chambers, once owned by prominent Ten Mile preacher David Lillard, has an account here, and Felix Lindsey's recollections are here.

The Louisville and Westport Railroad will soon be completed in three months.  If the people along the river could be made to understand their own interest, it would be put through to Covington by this time next year - but you might as well undertake "to plow up h-ll with a bob-tail rat tied to a shingle," as to make some people see anything two feet from their nose, and the people along this route have got this near-sighted disease badly, from the indifferent way they act about this matter, which is of so much importance to ever man on the route." 
The Warsaw Record, as reprinted in the Covington Journal of March 13, 1873

"Louisville, Ky., Monday, Nov. 5 - Eight men were arrested at Warsaw on Saturday for robbing and mistreating negroes, and are now in our military block."  New York Times, November 6, 1866

"Warsaw contains 116 dwellings; 63 business houses; 4 churches, Christian, Baptist, Methodist and Catholic; 3 hotels; 1 schoolhouse; 1 mill; and a court-house, clerk's office, and jail - making in all 187 buildings." the Carrollton Democrat, October 9, 1869.

In 1930, Kentucky Progress Magazine ran a feature letting each of Kentucky's counties list their accomplishments for 1929.  What Gallatin County came up with is here. (pdf)

"The Eagle Valley Telephone Company has completed its lines from Glencoe to Sparta and the exchange will be established at the residence of Mrs. Nat Carpenter.  The line is now in operation."  The Warsaw Independent, Dec. 22, 1906.

Obituary of Harry B. Clore, Warsaw, here.
 

Obituary of Dr. O. B. Yeager, Glencoe, here.

Warsaw's leading merchant in the late 19th century was
Capt. J. H. McDanell.  His obituary is here.

"It becomes our painful duty to chronicle a murder in our neighboring town, Warsaw, about 9 miles above this place.  The details, as we have heard them, are as follows: On Wednesday night last, the 16th inst., Thomas M. Lillard, a young man of a most respectable family, shot James Henderson, with whom whom he had long been at enmity, killing him instantly.  The act was evidently the result of deliberate malice, as Lillard, without a word having been passed on either side, walked up to his victim, and placing a pistol against his head, blew his brains out.  Public sentiment is strongly against Lillard, and he was fully committed without bail, to answer in the next Court; the Grand Jury was in session and found immediately a bill against him of murder in the first degree."  from Vevay's Indiana Sentinel, March 23, 1859

"Our American friends of Gallatin county, Ky., are to have the largest political meeting ever held in South-eastern [!] Kentucky at Warsaw, Ky, on Thursday, July 31.  Some of the best speakers in the State will be present, and a fine dinner served up on the occasion. We hear some talk of our Vevay and Ghent friends chartering the ferry boat to take them there and back.  Who'll go! Don't all speak at once." from the Vevay Reveille, July 23, 1856

"The American Barbeque at Warsaw, Ky., on Thursday last, passed off very finely.  Thousands of people were present, and speeches made by Messrs. Jones, Bibb, Norton and Rankin.  Kentucky will give a large majority for Fillmore and Donelson"  from the Vevay Reveille, August 6, 1856

"A Gallatin farmer, Bennett Graham, refused to pay toll on the Warsaw a & Sparta turnpike while going to church Sunday.  He claimed that persons going to church were exempt from paying toll, but was arrested and fine $10.  The pike was built on private capital and the law could not touch it."
from the Hickman (Ky) Courier, May 3, 1895

Warsaw's William N. Lyon, in 1846, published A short and comprehensive history of the United States : containing the Declaration of Independence, short and interesting biographical sketches of the Presidents, and most other illustrious men who have figured in our country since the American Revolution ; and a succinct account of the principal wars, and other national events down to the present day.

"The village of Warsaw, with its pork-houses, its tobacco factories, its groceries, its flour mills, and twelve hundred live population, looks very sprightly in its nest among the hills.  It is the county seat of Gallatin, and belongs to "Old Kentuck."  Warsaw is only one mile from New York [Florence, Ind.]  New York is in Switzerland county, in Indiana.  It contains about five hundred inhabitants. It is no relation, we suspect, to the pompous New York on the Hudson." from Ele Bowen's 1855 Rambles in the Path of the Steam Horse.  You can read Bowen's entire travel book at Google Books.

"W. H. Jones, Sheriff of Gallatin County, resigned on Monday of last week.  We have been informed that out of about $2,000 tax collected by him he had paid over about $700". 
The Boone County Recorder, January 31, 1878